The Dow Jones.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average also referred to as the Industrial Average, the Dow-30, the Dow Jones or simply as the Dow, is the oldest American stock exchange. It's created by Wall Street Journal editor, Charles Dow on may 26, 1896. The index is named after him and one of his business associates, Edward Jones. It is considered to be one of the most important ideces of the world.

It is not without a reason why is such an important index. There are 30 companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. All these companies are well known all over the world. These all are worldwide multinationals, to give a few examples: 3M, American Express, AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, McDonald's, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart and Walt Disney. These are all American companies, who need nod furter introduction. Before General Motors got financial problems they were on the Dow Jones aswell.

Because of all these big multinationals, the Dow Jones has a reasonable amount of index points. Where the AEX has between the 330-350 index points, the Dow Jones has 10.500 points. 2008 has been one of the Dow Jones's worst years. It reached a six-year low of 7.552 points. This had to do with one of the, at that time included, company who went bankrupt. This was the company Lehman Brothers. Before going bankrupt, the Lehman Brothers lost 40 percent on just on day, 9 september, 2008. But somehow the Dow Jones managed to end the year with over 10.000 points.